Monday, October 21, 2013

Dundee Hills

Yesterday we went out to the Dundee Hills, one of my favorite Oregon wine-growing regions. The valley was full of fog, as seen in the background of this photo, but up in the hills it was sunny, and Mt. Hood was visible in the distance.
This is the view from White Rose Estate.

Our first stop was at Red Ridge Farms, but on the way there I noticed this scene by the side of the road. I thought it looked like the bad part of town in The Shire.

Next to this was a foggy, abstract scene that looked like another world.

Up on the hill at Red Ridge Farms, it was still pretty foggy. We looked around the shop and looked at plants.

In a little while, there were moments when the sun would partly break through the fog. The hill was covered with leaves.

We went over to the Durant Vineyards tasting room next door. I walked out on their deck and took this photo of the vines with the fog in the background.

Then we went up to White Rose Estate, where we tasted some Pinot Noir, learned about the history of the area, and enjoyed the spectacular view shown in the first photo.

On the way back towards town, we stopped at the Maresh Red Barn tasting room. I wanted to try some Riesling, and they didn't have any, but advised us to go to Crumbled Rock Winery just down the road. They did have the Riesling I was looking for.

At Crumbled Rock, we also got to watch someone get inside one of the large vats and shovel the grapes out of the bottom.